Superheater header



May 26, 1931. H. B. OATLEY 7 SUPERHEATER HEADER Filed Jan. 15

\ INVENTOR. BY ATTORNEY 8,9 and '10 show anothermodificatiorr, Fig.

Patented May 26, 1931 UNIIED? ss'rares OFF-ICE.

COMPANY, on NEW YORK, N. Y.

SUPERHEATER I any invention refers, of steel, but the method ofmanufacturing it was by casting. As

will appear fromv the ensuing description and from thedrawings, and asis well known to. those familiar withthisart, these headers arevof arather. intricatedesign. It is the universal practice at the presenttime in this country and: abroad to make these headers of castziron, thegrade of cast iron necessary being. a particularly good one, thecomposition of-which must be watched very closely. Attempts that havebeen made to make such castings of steel have been unsuccessful onaccount o-f: the difficulty of avoiding blowholes, to which cast steelis ;particularly;.liable.

.The presence .of-such blow-holes is, of course, a very objectionableand serious matter. As

far as I am informed, all attempts-0f using cast steel have, therefore,beenabandoned.

The header made according to my'invention is-made from asi-ngle'forgedsteel-ingot. There will, therefore, be no blow-holes, the metal beingvery-compact and satisfactory on. account of -the; forging done on theingot.

My invention is lllustrated intheaccomer to ;a locomotive superheater,the view being a sectionwon line 1-1 of Fig. 2; Fig. .2 is a-section online 2-2 of Fig. 1; Fig. .3 is a front e1evation;F-igs. 4, 5, 6 and 7showa top" view, Fig.5 a fragmentary front view, Fig. 6 a section online-6-6 of-Fig. .5, and Fig.7 asectionondine 7 7"of Fig: 5; Figs.

Sr-being: afragmentary top. view, Fig.-. 9 a

fragmentary front view; and Fig. 10a section online 1010.of Fig.19-.-Figs lI-andilEZ show further modification, these-two-vie-ws icor- I 7Application fi1er1:Ianuary-15,'1927. Serial No; 161,395.

responding respectively. to thoseof Figs. 6 and 5'. v

Referring first to Fig.1,there is shown in this figure a fiuesheet 1into whichrare expanded'the front ends of fiues;.2. The smokeboxsheet ofthe locomotive is shown at Thefheader t for the superheater lies in theupper portionof: the'smokebox extending from one side to the. other.Steam is supplied toit by the dry pipe 5. The superheater elements orunits are shown at 6. These units are ofthe usual tubular form, each ofthem havingfour straightlengths suitably connected by return bends toform a continuous path forthe steam. One end w of'each unit-is securedto. a chamberinthe header receivingwet steam from the boiler and the:other end'to a chamber in the header delivering superheated steam tothe steam pipe leading to the. engine. All of this isin accordance withthe usual standard wellknown practice; The sgeneral disposition of thechambers .inheader, according to my. invention, is also in accordancewith present standard practice, as. will be apparent from the ensuingdescription.

Referringnext fora more detailed descriptio-nofthe header to Figs 2 and3, it willlbe seen, from Fig. 2 particularly, thatthere are two chamberstaand 4?) respectively extend- 4 ing longitudinally through the header.EX-

tending. forward from the chamber. fa-is .a series of subsldiarychambers4c; and extendingrearwardfrom the chamber ib. 1s a .se-

HENRY 'B. OATLEY, OF GREAT NECK, NEW YORK, .ASSIGNQR TO Tit-IE1SUPER-HEATER ries off-subsidiary chambers 4rd. The cham- :t".

bers 4c and 4d are intermeshed .in the usual way 'so that theyalternate.

Inaccordan'ce with my invention, Ibegin with a solid steel block. Thechambers 4a andtb are produced by boring. Theirends are closed, andforthis purpose they arepreferablythrea'ded and plugs4e le are screwedinto these openings and then welded, as at ape".

The subsidiaryor secondary chambers 40 are. made by boring'through the'rear'wall fg and into the solid billet-to a point short of chamber 4b.After theyhave been'bored, the openings in the rear wall 4g, are alsoclosed,

-- preferably-by screwed and welded plugs.

formed in this way.

The subsidiary chambers 4d are formed in The subsidiary chambers 4dare-produced in a corresponding manner, these chambers stopping short ofchamber 4a, and the openings in wall lk being likewise closed by screwedand welded plugs.

It will be understood that the closures for the holes spoken of abovemay be effected in any suitable or preferred manner.

To secure the superheater units or elements 6 to the header I employmeans like those which have been used hitherto, that is, bolts and nuts8 and clamps 7. This feature needs no description as it is well known.To accommodate the bolts 8 I bore the holes 99 through the partitionwalls between the subsidiary chambers 40 and 4d.

Holes 20- are bored from the underside of the header to communicate withthe subsidiary chambers and 4d, their arrangement being clear from Fig.2.

10 is a connection for the saturated steam from dry pipe 5 and is weldedinto the open- 7 ing 11, which has for this purpose been'bored into theheader 1 at the point 12, enlarged for this purpose, the opening 11intersecting and communicating with the chamber i-a. Connections 1313for securing the steam pipes which are to carry the steam to the engineare suitably secured into openings in the front wall preferably bywelding.

It will be seen that my invention provides a steel header of dense steelfree from blowholes and defects. Onaccount of the greater strength ofsteel, it can be made considerably lighter than a cast iron header of thsame strength. 5

Referring next to the modification of Figs.

4 to 7, it will be seen thatvthe billet is given a somewhat differentform. In cross-section it becomes more nearly square. The chambers 4aand 4b are bored in the upper half of the billet and have their ends,closed as in the form first described. The subsidiary chambers 40 aremade as follows: Using a suitable bore each' of them is formed by boringfrom the rear side of the header at such a point that the subsidiarychamber will intersect and open into the main chamber 41a as at 41s. Thedepth to which this bore is used, however, must not be great enough tolet the subsidiary chamber 40 intersect the chamber 46 as otherwise thesteam would obviously flow directly into the chamber I?) without goingthrough the superheater elements. For this reason the second portion ofthe sub Each of the subsidiary chambers 4a is a corresponding mannereach intersecting and opening into the chamber 47) at the point an theheadand the parts of these subsidiary chambers under the chamber 4abeing formed by two channels 4;) as clearly seen in Fig. 5. The holes4g-4q for the superheater connections are bored from the bottom side ofthe header as in the first instance. 7 v I It will be clear from aninspection of Figs. 6 and 7 that it is impossible in this case to boreholes through the header for the bolts. For this reason I useanothercommon arrangement for securing the superheater elements to theheader, that is, I machine slots elr4r in the bottom side of the header,these slots being T-shaped and extending from front to back of theheader. The heads of the bolts are slid into these slots in the wellknown manner. i Connections 10 and 13- 13 are made to this header in thesame manner asin the form first described. 7'

In the form illustrated in Figs. 8to 10, one of the chambers, that is,the chamber 40, is shown in the upper portion of the billet and theother, that is, 4?), in the forward portion. It will be noted that thisarrangement is a combination of the form first described and that shownin Figs. 4 to 7. The subsidiary chambers 40 communicating with thechamber 4a are bored into the header from the rear and intersect theheader 4a at 410 as in the firstmodification. They may, however, be offull size for their entire distance inasmuch as the location of thechamber 4?) is different from t-he'one shown in the first modificationand there is no question of intersecting this chamber. They stop shortof the chamber 46. i

The subsidiary chambers 4d communicating with-the chamber 46 are boredfrom the front. The full size bore is used up to the point 48 and fromthere on'a double smaller bore as in the first modification. v

There is shown in this modification'ione variation with regard to theconnection 10,

and that is that it is placed at the top. This can obviously also beused in connection with the principal form or the first modification.Vice'versa, the connections 10 might in this second modification also beat the rear instead of atthe top.

This second modification'is equipped with T slots like the firstmodification.

In Figs. 11 and 12 is illustrated a modification of the subsidiarychambers. Where these extend under one of the cross chambers- 4a or 4?),their smaller size may be effected in a manner different from thatdescribed in connection with the first two modifications. The reducedportion, instead of being made of two bores of a diameter equal totheradius of the larger bore,.the centers of the three bores lying in acommon plane, is here made by'f'a single smaller bore, 4dal,'whosecenter'iA lies below-the center'B of the large bored.

The top of the bore dcl is lower than the top 1 of the two small boresin the first two modifications, and as a result the longitudinal chamberabove it can be put a little lower than in the first modifications. Thismakes it pos- 6 sible to use a somewhat smaller billet. The holes 20-20,which open into the bore ldd, do so at the sides of the bore as will beclear from an inspection of Fig. 12.

The construction of the secondary cham- 10 bers opening into the chamber4a and whose smaller bore extends under 46, is similar to that describedand will be understood withp out further words.

It will be obvious that some variations may be made in the details ofthe header without departing from my inventive idea. My invention, asstated above, and as will now be clear, results in a steel header whichis without all the defects which have hitherto made the use of steel forthis purpose impossible.

'I claim:

1. A superheater header comprising a unitary forged steel block havingtwo parallel cylindrical chambers, and provided with a series ofparallel subsidiary chambers at right angles to said first namedchambers and each comprising a large cylindrical portion communicatingwith one of the first named chambers and a smaller cylindrical portionlying under the second of the first named chamers.

2. A superheater header comprising a unitary forged steel block havingtwo parallel. cylindrical chambers, and provided with a series ofparallel subsidiary chambers at right angles to said first namedchambers and each comprising a large cylindrical portion communicatingwith one of the first named chambers and a smaller portion comprising 40two parallel cylindrical bores extending under the second of the firstnamed chambers.

3. A superheater header comprising a unitary steel block having twoparallel cylindrical chambers and provided with two series of parallelsubsidiary chambers at right angles to said first named chambers, thoseof the first series intermeshed with those of the second series, eachsubsidiary chamber having a large and a small cylindrical portion, thelarge portions of those of one set communicating with one of said firstnamed chambers and the large portions of those of the other setcommunicating with the second of said first named chambers, the smallportions of each subsidiary chamber lying under that one of the firstnamed chambers with which the'large portion does not communicate.

HENRY B. OATLEY.

